The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-17
For THE UNIvERsALIsT.
A FORTNIGHT AMONG The
IRISH.
BY MRS. CAROLINE A. soULE.
III.

Twas curious,-perhaps the better word
would be anxious, for my curiosity had
good reasons and good purposes,-to
learn exactly how the Irish did live on
their native soil. Al d took every legiti-
mate means to satisfy my questioning
spirit. These people 1 found, there in
the North, are, as rule much superior
10 those in the South. And the neighbor-
hood 1 was in was intensely Protestant,
30 cannot Judge all Ireland by what
learned in Londonderry county.
Having lived once in log. cabin, hav-
ing indeed been mistress OF such an
abode, I was the sooner at home in a
stone cabin than one would have been
whose days had been all spent in "brown-
stone fronts" or "two and three story
bricks" And / was thus permitted to
90 out and in as one of the family, they
seeing that never intruded on their pri-
vacy, when privacy was desirable.
The second day they called me into the
kitchen at dinner time to ''see how they
took their meat,"-naedt being used here
as in Scotland, as the synonym Of food. 1
had watched from my little window the
washing and trimming of about half
bushel of old potatoes, and wondered what
was to be done with them all, for the fam
lily that day consisted only Of the parents,
three lads, hired man and woman who
e. kl.a vHn I01 ho1
of course, our own food, cooked separate
ly. This family, except the woman SER
want, who sat on the settle, with dozen
boiled potatoes in her apron and bowl
of broth beside her on a chair,-was
seated around the table, which was scrup-
ulously clean, but without cloth. As I
have said before, this housekeeper never
had but one tablecloth. The half bushel
of boiled potatoes lay in the center of the
table. Each person had knife, and that
day bowl of broth beside him, but no
plate or fork. They picked up the pota-
toes with their fingers. peeled them,
dipped them in the little pile Of salt that
lay beside each and ate them. And this
was the dinner, and this was all. No
bread, no butter, no pickles, no condi-
ments, except pepper. And this is their
dinner three hundred and sixty-five days
of the year; the only change being that
the bowl holds some times milk, instead
of broth. This family had exceptionally
good dinners, because the father was a
butcher in small way, killing a sheep
or lamb, sometimes beef, twice week,
and the family had always the head for
broth and the 'pluck" for frying or stew
ing. This sheep, lamb, or beef, though was
not peddled out to the small farmers or the
peasants. 1t wentsdirectly to the rector,
or to the gentry, who would take half or
quarter; but the majority Of the people
about there we're vegetarians, living on
dinners of potatoes, the year round, ex.
cept at Christmas, or when some very dis
tinguished guest was invited.
"How do you keep the potatoes from
rolling all over the table and on to the
hoorp" asked I, in my practical house
keepers voice. Mrs. N. laughed and
said, "I'll show you tomorrow" So the
next day when the potatoes were to be
poured, 1 was called in to see how the thing
was managed. Mrs. N. held the hoop of
a barrel over the center of the table,
while Mary Ann poured the potatoes out
of the heavy iron pot into the circle made
by the hoop; the water, of course, had
been drained of, and so skilful were both
one in holding and one in pouring, that
not a single "tatie' rolled outside the
prescribed circumference. was amused
and yet 1 could not help thinking it
would be neater to have dish, or even a
tin BASIN to hold them. But my old
friend, Mr.. Mex, says this is a great ad-
vance on what was done In his boyhood
then they were poured into basket and
the basket set in the middle of the floor
and the family crouched around it and
helped themselves. The table he con
siders a great improy ement, and conf
IDENTIFY hopes the next generation will
aspire to napery and dishes.
Ah1o was hhC Wol lNCus LUIS
simple dinner at noon. at four, some
times earlier, they had their tea, which
was tea, and good tea, for they get a
prime article in Derry,-pure Assam
and bread and butter. But my little loaf
bread is used, paratively, though
bakers vans come out from Derry almost
daily. This family usually eat scenes,
what we would call short-cake, which
Mrs. n baked in frying pan that was
hung to the crane and then suspended
high above the blazing peat fire, high
enough to bake early and slowly. In
deed, all the cooking is done over the
open fire, just as our mothers and grand
mothers used to cook, before the intro
duction of stoves, except that there are
none Of those brick ovens that used TO
turn out for us such delicious pumpkin
and mince pies at Thanksgiving; and